With all the depressing talk about the stock market (the Dow fell close to 200 points today), and struggling banks (Citigroup chairman Dick Parsons said today he had no idea when the bank would be able to pay back the $45 billion it's borrowed), it's nice to see that some people are still spending recklessly and…

One unmistakable sign that Russia is truly in the doldrums as it suffers the effects of the financial crisis? No, not the fact that Moscow had 74 billionaires a year ago, whereas now it just has 27. Russians accustomed to drinking champagne have been forced to turn (back) to vodka! [Bloomberg]

The image of Russia's rich elite has come so far: They're no longer regarded by the rest of the world as hopelessly ostentatious and flashy, thanks in large part to Dasha Zhukova's stylish ambassadorship and Russian Vogue editor Aliona Doletskaya's announcement that "full-on extravagance, the red lipstick, the…

Forbes has busy been laying off staff today. But the magazine is facing other problems, too. Billionaire Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev now says he plans to sue the mag for reducing his net worth on its recent list of the world's richest people. "Forbes magazine claimed that I lost $2.5 billion in the global…

The cruel blows of the recession have made a certain elite group even more elite: There are now only 49 Russian billionaires, half as many as there were a year ago, according to the annual ranking of Russia's wealthiest published today by Finans magazine. Last year's number one, aluminium magnate Oleg Deripaska,…

The financial crisis isn't just spoiling Dasha Zhukova's dreams of a lavish wedding. The girlfriend of billionaire Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich now has to contend with the fact that she may not be able to sunbathe aboard the world's largest yacht next summer. Abramovich is thinking about backing out of a deal…

A couple of weeks ago, teen fashion designer (and Russian heiress) Kira Plastinina announced plans to close "most" of her US-based locations, including the hot-pink branch here in NYC. Today we learn it really is the end of the line: After burning through $80 million of the dairy mogul's cash, the company filed for…

• That was quick. After making a splashy debut in NYC back in May (and after paying Nicole Richie to come to Moscow two weeks ago), 16-year-old Russian heiress/designer Kira Plastinina now says she plans to close most of her 12 locations in the U.S. [FWD]
• In related news, retail sales in Russia are reportedly down…

With the economic crisis putting the squeeze on nearly everyone and with fashion retailers dropping like flies, it's a tough time to be a young designer. So we're glad that Russia Today thought to check in with clothing empress Kira Plastinina—whose latest line was unveiled in Moscow last week—and even gladder that…

Think American moguls are panicking as they see their fortunes vanish into thin air? The situation is even worse in Russia, where the country's oligarchs have collectively lost an estimated $230 billion over the past six months. (Roman Abramovich, left, has seen his net worth plunge by $20 billion.) The Business Sheet…

This week's Miami Art Basel, the world's most important art fair and normally a scene of champagne-soaked excess as wealthy art lovers convene to outdo each other on spending tens of millions on star artists, has a gloomy cloud over it as the art market experiences a dramatic dive. The hedge funders probably won't…

♦ The Condé Nast memo concerning budget cuts seems to have failed to make its way to W. Last week Kate Moss arrived in NYC to do a shoot, only to discover it had been canceled and no one had bothered to tell her before she left. So, after stopping to smoke a cigarette outside JFK, she hopped back on another first…

Although the fortunes of Russian oligarchs have shrunk a tad in the past few weeks— the richest of them all, scandal-hit Oleg Deripaska, may be forced to give up a stake in his mining empire if he doesn't come up with $2 billion in the next few days—that's no reason to stop lavishing attention on the new breed of…

You may have heard about Russian mogul Valery Kogan and his wife Olga when they purchased a mansion in Greenwich for $18.5 million and then applied for permission to raze the house to build their 27,000-square-foot "dream home." In May Greenwich's planning commission denied the Kogans a permit following complaints…

Art Review has issued its "Power 100" list of the industry's most influential figures, and manages to make it semi-relevant in these troubled economic times: Erstwhile major art sponsors UBS and Deutsche Bank are conspicuous in their absence, and the list's compilers say that the murky economic climate has made…

You'd think that a Russian billionaire could do pretty much whatever he wants regardless of the current state of economy, right? Not so much, says Roman Abramovich, who has postponed his wedding to Dasha Zhukova—patron of arts and soul of discretion—because of the financial crisis. The 41-year-old Russian mogul, who…

Wall Street's masters of the universe may be fixated on a government bailout/handout, but Russian oligarchs have picked up their slack in buying up the world's priciest houses, dating supermodels and amassing all the Faberge eggs and Damien Hirsts the global art market can offer. The director of London's Gagosian…

The art world was all aflutter last night when its newest patron Dasha Zhukova, the comely and unloquacious consort of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, opened the Garage, her Moscow exhibition space in an 8,500-square-foot former bus shelter just outside the city center. Ever discreet, she wouldn't reveal how…